Unfairly Treated

WARNING: CONTENT MAY BE UPSETTING TO
SOME READERS.

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On Monday Memorial Day, we took the kids to New Smyrna Beach. We use the same beach access ramp everytime and park in the same area, because the bathrooms and lifeguard are right nearby. As we were pulling into the spot to park my husband looked to his right and said "that looks like a sea turtle over there" pointing to a mound that looked like rock. It was a sea turtle. Sadly, this turtle was not alive and was not making her way back to sea.

It's egg laying season and it's pretty exciting to see those awesome creatures when they come in from the ocean to lay their eggs on the beach.

We stepped out of the car and the smell hit us. Apparently the turtle had been there quite some time. It was already 9:30am and I wondered why they had not removed the turtle once the beach opened at sunrise. I have seen more crews from Sea World rushing for a dead beached whale or dolphin but this protected animal was left there to rot. It upset me that it was just left there.

A few hours later, after several Beach Patrol crews drove past the site, a pickup truck marked with the words 'work site crew' pulled up. I watched them pull out a large plastic garbage can from the bed of their truck which was full of old rafts, tattered beach chairs and other hodge podge of items that were left on the beach. I looked at the turtle for the last time and it was obvious that this turtle did not die of natural causes, it had been killed by some one. A large gash into it's head and shell were visible.

So sad.. As far as I knew, it was illegal to molest or harm those animals. The counties give residents such a hard time about keeping lights off during nesting season and bordering off areas with nests. I cannot believe that no one was concerned that this animal was killed! Now the poor creature is being loaded into a trash can like garbage and going to the local landfill?!

I have never seen a loggerhead turtle in the wild and my first time, the poor thing is treated like yesterdays garbage.